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• In September 1999, police in Vladivostok arrested six men who tried to sell at least 3.5 kilograms of uranium-238. 117 • In July 2001, officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested two residents of North Ossetia and one Azerbaijani citizen for illegal possession of 1.5 kilograms of uranium. One of the North Ossetians served as a colonel in the Interior Ministry when he bought the uranium in 2000 in an attempt to sell it to a buyer in Turkey. 118 • In June 2002, police seized two kilograms of uranium from a Russian citizen in the city of Izhevsk, Russia. 119 There have also been media reports of nuclear warheads stolen or missing in the former Soviet Union. Some attributed claims of “broken arrows” to officials, including then-secretary of Russia’s Security Council Alexander Lebed and Ukrainian legislator Pyotr Simonenko. 120 None of the alleged Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies Nuclear Threat Initiative, available at http://www.nti.org/db/nistraff/1999/19990460.htm as of July 4, 2002. 117 Georgii Kulakov, “Prodavtsy Urana Prinyali Militsionerov Za Banditov” [Uranium peddlers thought policemen were bandits], Kommersant Daily, September 2, 1999. 118 “Uranium Traffickers Convicted North Ossetia, Russia,” NIS Nuclear Trafficking Database, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies Nuclear Threat Initiative, February 27, 2001, available at http://www.nti.org/db/nistraff/2001/20010130.htm as of July 4, 2002. 119 “Izhevsk, V Tsentre Goroda Izyato Dva Kilogramma Urana” [Izhevsk: two kilograms of uranium seized downtown], Kupol-Media, June 13, 2002. Also reported in “Prosecution Investigates the Case of 2 Kilos of Uranium Seized in Udmurtia,” Nuclear.ru, June 10, 2002. 120 Lebed stirred controversy in both Russia and the United States in May 1997 with his allegations that the Russian government is currently unable to account for some eighty small atomic demolition munitions (ADM’s) which were manufactured in the USSR during the Cold War. Scott Parrish, “Are Suitcase Nukes on the Loose? The Story Behind the Controversy,” Monterey Institute of International Studies, November 1997. Simonenko, who heads the Ukrainian parliament’s Communist faction, told reporters in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on September 11, 2002 that transfer of only 2,200 out of 2,400 warheads, which Ukraine had on its territory at the time of disintegration of Soviet Union, have been documented, “The fate of the other 200 warheads is unknown,” Simonenko said. He said that a special parliamentary 43
thefts of nuclear warheads have been confirmed either by governments of former Soviet states or by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however. While there is no evidence of nuclear weapons theft, it is well known that quite a few weapons were lost. In fact, more than forty Soviet nuclear weapons were lost in 1950-1993, according to renowned nuclear safety scholar Joshua Handler of Stanford University and Greenpeace, when the atomic submarines carrying them sank. 121 One of these ill-fated submarines, which still remains at the bottom of the sea, is the K-278 Komsomolets. This Soviet Mike class (Project 685) nuclear-powered attack submarine sank off northern Norway following on-board fires and explosions on April 7, 1989. The submarine was powered by one nuclear reactor and carried two nuclear torpedoes. 122 “Terrorists would need a few hours to take one warhead, about one day...to take the second one,” one expert said, referring to the Komsomolets. 123 The expert didn’t explain how the terrorists could access the submarine, which is at a depth of 1,685 meters in the Norwegian Sea. Motivation to steal and sell In spite of modest improvements in living standards across Russia, thousands of Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry servicemen and nuclear industry workers continue to subsist on meager wages. The government remains unable either to substantially boost defense spending or to commission probed the transfer to find out that the warheads could be missing. “Leader of Ukrainian Communists Confirm That 200 Warheads Have Vanished From the Territory of the Country,” September 12, 2002. 121 “Accidents Involving Nuclear Weapons in1950-1993,” Greenpeace, March 1996, available at http://archive.greenpeace.org/~comms/nukes/ctbt/read3.html as of June 29, 2002. 122 Ibid. Also reported in “Nuclear Submarine Accidents,” Bellona Foundation, 1996, available at http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/11084.html#O1 as of June 29, 2002. 123 Moscow News Confidential, February 1995, quoted in Vladimir Orlov, “Preventing the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism: The Case of Russia,” Disarmament Diplomacy, The Acronym Institute, United Kingdom, 1998, available at http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd20/20terr.htm as of July 15, 2002. 44
Page 1 and 2: Russia: Grasping Reality of Nuclear
Page 3 and 4: CO-SPONSORS The cosponsors of this
Page 5 and 6: military campaign in Chechnya at a
Page 7 and 8: house NBC materials and components
Page 9 and 10: attention toward securing the civil
Page 11 and 12: Ensuring that all of Russia’s nuc
Page 13 and 14: If it accepts this funding, the Rus
Page 15 and 16: members of Russian organized crimin
Page 17 and 18: salafites who seek to establish an
Page 19 and 20: More recently, however, Maskhadov h
Page 21 and 22: of the so-called Congress of the Pe
Page 23 and 24: even if he specifically orders all
Page 25 and 26: idea of Chechen independence, becau
Page 27 and 28: Sources in the Russian Ministry of
Page 29 and 30: Now that a conventional terrorist a
Page 31 and 32: years after Khasukhanov’s plan wa
Page 33 and 34: an independent Islamist state in th
Page 35 and 36: Even though Chechnya-based radical
Page 37 and 38: Even careful screening might fail t
Page 39 and 40: The cult actively recruited scienti
Page 41 and 42: sufficiently robust at all of Russi
Page 43 and 44: soldier had been suffering a nervou
Page 45: servicemen from the Andreeva Guba n
Page 49 and 50: in June 2002, and were still in cus
Page 51 and 52: As far as is known, most Russian ga
Page 53 and 54: VII. Conclusion There is no credibl
Page 55 and 56: But these doubts might disappear if
Page 57 and 58: should be boosted to further improv
Page 59 and 60: 1. Amend the Criminal Code to incre
Page 61 and 62: INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM The
Page 63: The Robert and Renée Belfer Center

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